Parton Transverse Momentum and Orbital Angular Momentum Distributions

The quark orbital angular momentum component of proton spin, Lq, can be defined in QCD as the integral of a Wigner phase space distribution weighting the cross product of the quark’s transverse position and momentum. It can also be independently defined from the operator product expansion for the off-forward Compton amplitude in terms of a twist-three generalized parton distribution. We provide an explicit link between the two definitions, connecting them through their dependence on partonic intrinsic transverse momentum. Connecting the definitions provides the key for correlating direct experimental determinations of Lq, and evaluations through Lattice QCD calculations. The direct observation of quark orbital angular momentum does not require transverse spin polarization, but can occur using longitudinally polarized targets.